Argentina: New antitrust authority established, and a step taken toward pre-closing regulation

20 Nov 2025    1 minute read
Competition Defense Tribunal Anticompetitive Conduct ANC (National Competition Authority) Pre-closing System LDC (Law for the Defense of Competition)

In brief

Following the public selection process, through Decree No. 810/2025 (“Decree”), the Executive Branch (Poder Ejecutivo Nacional (PEN)) has provisionally appointed the minimum positions required to constitute the National Competition Authority (Autoridad Nacional de Competencia (ANC)). Although the National Senate (“Senate”) can still reject this measure, this event represents a key milestone in implementing the first paragraph of Article 9 of Law No. 27,442 on Antitrust Matters (Ley de Defensa de la Competencia (LDC)), which begins to apply one year after the ANC is instituted. This means that, starting 17 November 2026, transactions subject to the current mandatory notification regime must be notified to the authority prior to their consummation.

Contents

In focus

After the completion of the required public selection process, the PEN provisionally appointed the president and two members of the Competition Defense Tribunal, the secretary for anticompetitive conduct and the secretary for economic concentrations. This means that these positions have been temporarily designated until the Senate grants them definitive approval. Nevertheless, Decree No. 480/2018 — which regulates the LDC — establishes that with these appointments, the ANC is formally constituted.

The most significant change introduced by this development is that, based on Article 84 of the LDC, the constitution of the ANC triggers the one-year period for the entry into force of the first paragraph of Article 9 of the LDC, which institutes the pre-closing system in Argentina. This system, aligned with international best practices, will require — starting 17 November 2026 — that parties notify the ANC of a transaction before the act is perfected or control is acquired, whichever occurs first.

Until these appointments, the enforcement authority was the Secretariat of Industry and Commerce, together with the National Commission for Competition Defense, both operating under the PEN. The ANC, by contrast, is decentralized and autonomous, with budgetary and administrative independence. This fosters greater confidence in the enforcement of the LDC by reducing political influence. Additionally, the decision-making body is now collegial and includes two secretariats that make decisions in the process.

Luca Burton, Paralegal, has contributed to this legal update.

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